A New Life
by liz012014
Summary: Part 2 of the story begun with Life Goes On How will the crew react after they are reunited?
1. Default Chapter

New Beginnings  
  
This first chapter is all Andy but there will be plenty of Spike, Faye, Ed, Jet, and Ein in the next chapters. Bear with me.  
  
Chapter 1: A New Life  
  
The alley was grimy, cold, and wet. Andy landed hard on her hands and knees, tears streaming down her face. Damp cloth clung to her body, clearly showing the outline of her round stomach. Blindly, she clambered to her feet and leaned against the dirty brick wall. 'Breathe.' Her chest heaved with the effort, heart pounding wildly. Hands moved of their own volition to her swollen belly. She squatted carefully to retrieve her gun. The metal was heavy in her hand and her eyes caught the faint glint of streetlight on the barrel.  
  
"Stop!" Andy's head snapped in the direction the voice had come from. A man in a black suit was racing toward her from the building she'd just left. He slowed and raised his weapon, sighting along the barrel.  
  
Andy pushed off the wall and sprinted to the opposite side, crouching behind a dumpster. Growling under her breath she reached her arm around the side of the metal trash bin and squeezed off several shots. Strands of red hair flipped into her eyes and she blew at them in aggravation.  
  
The suit dove behind a packing crate and returned fire. Andy cautiously fired two more blind shots and waited for the distinctive click indicating her adversary had emptied his clip. The moment she heard it, she flew from her hiding place and raced to the mouth of the alley, skidding around the corner. The sound of hurried footsteps behind her urged her on.  
  
Ahead of her, the lights of the Las Vegas strip burned brightly into the early morning. Andy continued to run until she reached the outskirts of a crowd of off-world tourists. Here she slowed and pressed into the midst of the group, hiding in plain view. She tucked the gun into the waistband of the floral print skirt she wore, covering the handle with the bottom of her sweater.  
  
She was hungry, tired, wet, and very pregnant. Despite her strong resemblance to a drowned rat, no one paid her a second glance. Andy glanced around her, looking for options. Her eyes finally rested on a dimly lit parking lot containing several space-going vessels. A sly smile stole across her face as she slipped away from the group of sightseers.  
  
When she reached the parking lot she quickly selected a small ship resembling Faye's Redtail. She bypassed the locking mechanism with little effort and climbed aboard. As she started a pre-flight systems check, she caught a glimpse of movement at the edge of the parking lot. The gunman was staring straight at her. Andy's eyes grew wide in astonishment. At that moment, the man caught her eye and began to advance on her position with steady purpose.  
  
"Screw the pre-flight." Andy muttered, hitting the ignition and jerking the vehicle into clumsy motion. Bullets bounced off the hull as Andy lifted off and skimmed the ground barely over the tops of the other ships. She quickly gained altitude and at the first possible moment, careened out of the atmosphere at high speed.  
  
Breathing a sigh of relief, the young woman directed her stolen vessel into Earth's gate and set a course for Venus. She'd figure out what to do next after she arrived in Venus airspace. As she closed her weary eyes to rest, Andy remembered the events that had led up to her exodus from Mars and her most recent pursuit on Earth.  
  
Lucas had only been the leader of the Red Dragon Syndicate for a couple of months when Andy had discovered she was pregnant. She clearly remembered thinking, 'Humanity is capable of interstellar space travel but they still haven't invented a completely effective contraceptive.' The irony did not escape her. But Lucas had been so excited. Their relationship had developed quickly during those first months and she had worried that once Lucas really had time to process the situation he would break ties with her. He hadn't. He'd been there every step of the way. Until three days ago.  
  
Three days ago, her life had gone mad. Andy had a lot of free time since she'd found out that she was pregnant. Lucas had insisted that she take leave of her job as his bodyguard. She cheerfully acquiesced with his request and treated the early part of her pregnancy as a vacation. She had made a habit of having lunch with Lucas in his office everyday. After lunch she would go back to her room for a nap. The day Andy had been forced to run, she had taken a detour before returning to her room.  
  
Andy stood outside the door to Anthony Hawthorn's office. His door stood open a bare inch. Her morning sickness had decided to make a sudden reappearance even though it wasn't morning and she'd stopped in the restroom across the hall. Then, as she dug through her purse for her lipstick she heard raised voices coming from the open doorway. "She can't be permitted to bring that child to term." Andy moved closer, unashamed of her eavesdropping. The voice she heard was that of Hawthorn, Lucas' first assistant. "If she does, Lucas will marry the bitch and he'll have a legitimate heir. It'll be hard enough getting rid of just him. If he has a kid, I'll never be able to get rid of all of them without suspicion."  
  
Another voice responded. "But it's just a kid. A kid can't run an organization."  
  
Hawthorn's voice returned with strained patience. "Of course not. But its mother can run the organization until its old enough."  
  
"Yeah, I guess so."  
  
"And the elders will want his heir in place as soon as the kid is old enough." Through the crack in the door she could just make out Hawthorn as he paced across the lush carpet. "I want her taken care of now, before she gives birth." He glanced back at the man Andy couldn't see. "Make it look like an accident."  
  
"Sure, boss. Andy likes me. Getting close enough to do the job shouldn't be a problem." Andy's eyes widened as she recognized the second voice. It was Mark Turner, her bodyguard. She backed away in shock, only stopping when she bumped the opposite wall.  
  
The door was flung open. Hawthorn and Turner stared at the pregnant woman they had just been discussing. Hawthorn recovered first. "Get her! She heard our plans!" He and Turner sprung toward Andy, each grabbing an arm.  
  
Angry eyes narrowed to slits. "You were in deep shit before but now you're really going to get it." Andy allowed her knees to buckle, the sudden weight throwing both men off balance, and brought her arms together in front of her, slamming their heads into one another. All three fell to the floor. Andy was on her feet and running in seconds with Turner and Hawthorn close behind.  
  
She managed to get far enough ahead of them to escape into the elevator, the doors sliding shut just as the two men rounded the corner. Andy jabbed a finger at a random button and leaned back against the wall, trying to calm her breathing. Her stomach wobbled and she grimaced at the sudden nausea. 'Upsetting the pregnant woman is not cool.' Andy groaned quietly and tried to force her body to relax. It wasn't working.  
  
The door chimed and opened. Andy stepped out into an unfamiliar hallway. Glancing at a sign over the elevator she realized she had ended up in the basement. The parking garage was on this level. 'Now what?' Andy's thoughts tumbled, one into the next, as she tried to decide what to do.  
  
The elevator chimed behind her and the doors began to open again. Andy whirled to face the car she'd just emerged from. Hawthorn and Turner appeared. 'How?' Both men were absorbed in the preparation of their guns and didn't see her immediately. Andy wasted no time. She grabbed the nearest object, a heavy metal chair, and lobbed it at her pursuers. The piece of projectile furniture struck the two men before they had even realized Andy was before them. As they tried to scramble back to their feet, the doors cut them off from their prey.  
  
Andy turned and fled, stretching each long leg as far as it would reach. When she reached the area containing the vehicles of the various Syndicate employees, she quickly sought her own ship and made a hasty retreat. Her hastily conceived plan had been to gate somewhere far away and send word to Lucas via the inter-net. She'd gone to earth with the intention of getting lost in the growing crowds of tourists.  
  
As the young woman reexamined her actions she realized that Hawthorn had been planning her demise for longer then she'd initially thought. She already knew that he'd had time to put Turner in place as her bodyguard and to think about the best method to carry out her murder. What Andy failed to consider was that he might have also had time to place a tracking device in her ship.  
  
Warmth rose to her cheeks as she contemplated the magnitude of her miscalculation. They had been able to follow her effortlessly, thus, her current predicament. Andy soared away from the crowded Las Vegas area and sighed her relief when no pursuit was evident.  
  
Luck was with the soon-to-be-mother. As she soon as she exited the gate in Venus' orbit, she caught sight of a familiar vessel. A wide grin lit her face and she keyed the com unit. "Bebop, can you hear me?"  
  
tbc(please review) I know that was a whole lot of Andy but I promise the next chapters will have lots and lots of the original Bebop crew. 


	2. Lost and Found

Chapter 2: Lost and Found  
  
"Faye!" Spike's bellow resounded through ship. "Faye! Where the hell are you?!"  
  
Jet appeared in the door to the living room where Spike was currently seething. "What's all the shouting for?"  
  
Spike took a measured breath. "Oh, nothing. I just need to find Faye." He paused dramatically. "So I can throttle her." His eyebrow twitched.  
  
Jet nodded and backed into the hallway slowly so as not to startle the wild beast that was his partner.  
  
"Faye!" Spike returned to his previous mantra.  
  
Faye appeared in the door Jet had recently vacated. "What?!" She was clad only in a bath towel. "In case you can't tell from my fashionable attire, I'm kind of busy."  
  
Spike gave her a deceptively calm smile. "Faye, can you think of any reason I might be a wee bit perturbed?"  
  
Faye placed a delicate finger to her chin and acquired an expression of intense concentration. "Nope. Can't think of anything." She turned and started back toward the bathroom.  
  
Spike's face was a study in exasperation. "They were my last pack, Faye. I don't have money for anymore."  
  
She turned back to him and placed a hand on one hip. "It was just a pack of cigarettes."  
  
The green haired bounty hunter was dramatic. "My last pack." He enunciated each word with force. "I don't have any more."  
  
"Aw. Is poor little Spikey going into withdrawl?" Faye chuckled and turned once again.  
  
"Faye." Spike growled and stalked across the room in her direction. "Are there any left?" He stopped less than a foot from the half-naked woman.  
  
She turned around and smirked up at him, completely unintimidated. "Maybe."  
  
Spike's anger fell away as he registered the sultry look he was receiving. "Maybe?"  
  
"Mm-hm." She was looking up at him from behind lowered lashes. "And maybe if you're good I'll find one for you." She paused, licking her lips. "Right after I finish my shower." With that she turned on her heel and moved down the hall to the bathroom.  
  
Spike didn't move from the place he'd been standing. After several moments, he expressed himself the only way he felt fitting. "Gah!" He threw his hands up in the air and flopped down on the couch to plot his revenge.  
  
Jet poked his head in. "Is it safe yet?"  
  
Spike glared at the former ISSP officer. "Did you need something?"  
  
Over the past few months Jet had watched this scenario play out regularly in a variety of forms. "Just wondering if I could start dinner or if I should come back after World War IV was over."  
  
Spike was readying a reply when a beeping sound emitted from the communications console.  
  
Both men glanced at it as a voice emerged, garbled slightly by interference. "Bebop, can you hear me?"  
  
Jet swiftly moved to the com unit. "This is Bebop. Who'm I talking to?"  
  
"Hey, Jet. It's Andy. I could really use some help." Her voice held a carefully controlled note of panic.  
  
Jet glanced at Spike as he joined him by the com unit. "What's going on?"  
  
She laughed uneasily. "A lot. Mind if I come aboard to discuss it?"  
  
"Come on in." The two men made their way to the hangar to wait for their friend to land.  
  
Andy laboriously climbed down from her ship and turned to face her benefactors. Their eyes were bugging out of their respective heads. She laughed. "I'm pregnant, not mutated."  
  
Jet shook his head as though to clear it. "Wow. I mean, congratulations."  
  
Andy grinned. "Thank you."  
  
Spike recovered. "What's going on, Andy? It sounded like you were in trouble."  
  
She looked sheepish. "About that, I seem to have gotten myself into a bit of a jam."  
  
Jet raised an eyebrow. "How so?"  
  
Andy sighed. "Can we go in the living room? I'd really like to sit down." She suddenly looked very tired.  
  
"Of course." Jet led the way down the hall.  
  
Faye was dressed now and standing beside the couch. "Andy!" Faye grinned as she took in her friend's current condition. "Congratulations!" She leaped across the room and pulled the other woman into a big hug.  
  
"Thank you. It's good to see you too." Andy's smile grew impossibly wider.  
  
"What brings you to our little corner of the universe?" Faye was still grinning broadly.  
  
Andy found a seat on the nearby couch. "About that, I've managed to get myself into a spot of trouble."  
  
"We got that." Spike's voice was dry.  
  
"Ok, the condensed version is this guy named Hawthorn is trying to kill me so I can't have this baby. He wants to kill Lucas and take over but he can't do that successfully if Lucas has an heir." She pointed to her stomach. "As you can see, his heir is on the way."  
  
"Andy is going to be a mommy-mommy!" Ed bounced into the room at high speed, attracting everyone's attention. Ein followed sedately behind the adolescent juggernaut.  
  
"Yes, Ed." Faye answered before directing her gaze back to the expectant mother. "You were saying?"  
  
"That pretty well does it actually. Lucas doesn't know any of this. He doesn't even know where I am."  
  
Jet's brow wrinkled. "You didn't tell him before you left?"  
  
Andy shook her head. "There wasn't time. Hawthorn and his flunky were on my tail. It was dumb luck I found you guys."  
  
"Did you just say, "flunky?"' Spike asked, incredulous.  
  
"What? You have a problem with her word choice?" Faye threw back.  
  
"Who uses the word "flunky?"'  
  
"Apparently, Andy does." Faye and Spike exchanged a heated glare that bordered somewhere between hostile and hot.  
  
Andy followed their exchange as though it were a tennis match, head moving back and forth to follow the ball. As they glared, she turned to Jet. "Do they do this often?"  
  
Jet sighed. "All the time."  
  
Andy studied the silent staring competition for a moment longer before rendering her opinion. "You two should just get a room and get it over with."  
  
The glare focused on her now. She winced. "Those evil looks should really be registered as lethal weapons."  
  
"Andy-person is funny!" Ed shrieked, laughing. She twirled in a circle and chased Ein around the couch once before following the mutt out of the living room.  
  
As was the norm, Ed's bizarre behavior served to deflate the rising tension of any given situation. Jet shook his head. "I don't know how she gets it, but I swear that girl uses drugs."  
  
"Strong ones." Spike added, shoving hands into pockets and lounging in the unoccupied chair opposite Andy.  
  
"If you ask me, she needs her dosage adjusted." Andy glanced in the direction the hyperactive teen had disappeared in. "Severely."  
  
"Those weren't the type of drugs I was referring to." Jet chuckled.  
  
"Still."  
  
"Back to the problem at hand." Faye announced, getting the group back on track. "This guy is trying to kill you and the baby and Lucas doesn't have a clue, right?"  
  
"That's pretty much it." Andy confirmed.  
  
"It seems to me the next course of action should be to inform Lucas of the situation." Jet folded his arms across his chest. "He could be in danger. You did say they were going to try to kill him."  
  
Andy nodded. "If we hurry, we might be able to beat them to him. They were still on the planet when I took off."  
  
"Let's go." Jet started for the bridge.  
  
"Ay-ay, Captain." Andy returned with a mock salute. "I think I'm going to take a nap." She glanced between Faye and Spike and gave a sly grin. "Don't you kids do anything I wouldn't do."  
  
"That leaves a lot of area to cover." Spike tossed at the now reclining woman as he stood from his chair and headed in the direction of the hallway.  
  
Faye grinned. "He's just grumpy because the pregnant woman is getting more action then he is."  
  
Andy laughed. "Thanks, Faye. It's nice to have people to count on."  
  
She nodded. "Yes, it is."  
  
tbc(please, please, please review-I'm begging, really) 


End file.
